Middle East Feature: Behind Iraq's Church Attack, Religious Tensions in Egypt

Elizabeth Iskander writes for EA:

Last Sunday, 58 people died when armed men took more than 100 hostages at Our Lady of Salvation Church in the Karrada neighbourhood of central Baghdad.

Iraqi churches have been targeted before; in one of the worst incidents, coordinated bomb attacks were launched against six churches in August 2004. However, these attacks took place within the broader campaign to ignite sectarian conflict inside Iraq.  This latest incident has taken place in a far different domestic context.

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an al-Qaeda-linked group, has claimed responsibility. Despite the name of the group and the target, the aims of this attack were linked to events and objectives outside Iraq. The kidnappers reportedly demanded the release of al-Qaeda prisoners from Iraqi and Egyptian jails, but they also accused Coptic Christian monasteries in Egypt of holding Muslim women against their will. The group gave the Coptic Church 48 hours to release the alleged captives, as the al-Arabiya news website reported that the ISI posted a statement on jihadist websites claiming the sole aim of the attack was"to help our weak captive Muslim sisters in the Muslim country of Egypt."

In an audio recording, the ISI refers to Wafaa Constantine and Camilia Shehata, two wives of Coptic priests, who allegedly left their homes and converted to Islam.  In both cases --- Constantine in 2004 and Shehata in July this year --- they were “delivered” back to the Church after State intervention, sparking Muslim-Christian tensions. 

On 8 September, a video in which Shehata denied her conversion to Islam was posted on the news site of al-Youm al-Saba news site.  Despite the statement, protests continued at mosques in Cairo and Alexandria. On 22 October, protesters outside one of Cairo’s biggest mosques, Masjid al-Nour, called for Camilia Shehata’s “return”. Both women remain in an undisclosed location.

Controversial statements by Coptic Church spokesman Anba Beshoy have added to the rising communal tensions in Egypt. In an interview on 15 September, he implied that Muslim Egyptians are the guests of Copts, who are the “original” Egyptians. Then, in comments at a Church seminar, Beshoy hinted that some of the Qur'anic verses were inserted at a later date.

The Secretary-General of the International Association of Muslim Scholars, Muhammed  Salim al-Awwa, accused the Coptic Church of stockpiling weapons with the aim of establishing a Coptic nation within Egypt’s borders.  Al-Azhar issued a statement affirming that Egypt is a Muslim state, causing dismay among Egypt’s small circle of secular activists. The State reacted by shutting a number of Salafi satellite channels that it accused of broadcasting content inciting demonstrations against the Coptic Church and its head, Pope Shenouda. 

With the situation in Egypt still inflamed, the calls of the ISI for operations against Egyptian churches, similar to the Baghdad attack, are worrying.  This is a disquieting sign for Christians and Muslims across the region that insurgents will try and broaden communal tensions that normally contained within a localised framework.

While the statements on the Qur'an and accusations of weapons stockpiles caused most reaction and controversy in Egypt, perhaps more indicative of the ideology underlying the communal tensions and the attempts to expand them across the region is the question of who is a “guest”.  Beshoy claimed Muslims are the guests, implying that their adoption of Islam had disconnected them from their pre-Islamic Egyptian heritage. Pope Shenouda claimed that Copts are the guests because Egypt is a Muslim majority country. Both these perspectives apply religion as the defining element in belonging and comes from the same mind set of Mohammed Medhi Akef, former Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, who once told a newspaper he would rather see a Malaysian Muslim head the country than an Egyptian Copt.

This gets inside the riddle of why an attack on a church in Iraq was undertaken to put pressure on Christians in Egypt over the personal faith decisions of two Egyptian women. Different religious beliefs can exist side by side, but in an ideological context that ascribes religion a communal and political identity, belonging is defined by sect. The problem is an anthropological one more than a theological one.

This attack on a Church in Baghdad is not only a tragedy for Iraq; it represents an encroaching understanding of social and political relations that is the biggest challenge in the Middle East in securing peace and equality for all its peoples.